


Two Equals One

by Chuluchan



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Bickering, Confusion, Dorms, First Date, Friends to Lovers, Multi, PWP, Roommates, Sexual Experimentation, Shower Sex, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 17:43:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7115950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chuluchan/pseuds/Chuluchan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin and Arthur are roommates at university. They're always together and despite their bickering they are best friends. One evening Merlin dares to make a suggestion that will show there are still things to learn even about people you think you know everything about.</p>
<p>"...People don't usually get privy to the most intimate moments of their friends, moments such as how they look or sound when they come..."</p>
<p>- In short: a little bit of uni sexual experimentation which leads to realization that there is more to it than they first thought</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Equals One

**Author's Note:**

> Everybody who writes certainly knows this... You write a long story (fanfiction) and you get frustrated, because it's complicated and it takes forever to finish it, so you just have to vent it all in something simple and easy and pleasant. And that's how this mostly PWP (I never wrote one before!) came to life ;)
> 
> So here we go!

Merlin and Arthur met when they entered university and were assigned to the same room at the dorm. It was a turbulent encounter, but despite their initial mutual enmity, they became fast friends. Always talking, joking and poking each other. It made all the long days of studying much more bearable. They spent practically all the time together. With sharing same room, having same lessons and thus making same friends, there was little they didn’t know about each other. Yet there is always something to learn yet, as was proven by one evening, when it all – in retrospection – started.  
  
That evening they were drinking with their friend, Gwen. She was a cute girl with dark curly hair, warm eyes and there was always smile playing on those sweet lips, making dimples in her cheeks. She was like an angel, really. Merlin had a suspicion she might have been falling in love with Arthur a little. However, the thing was she spent all evening talking to Merlin out of the two of them. Whether he felt as a safer ground or Arthur was too difficult to approach, Merlin didn’t know. He knew enough, though, or at least he thought so, when she laughed at Merlin’s quips and then was stealthily giving longing looks to Arthur. That was until Merlin said something particularly disarming and she gave him a kiss. To be honest, they were all fairly buzzed by that time, which was maybe why Merlin dared to finally voice his question.  
  
“So which one of us are you going to take to bed?” He asked her bluntly, when she withdrew from his personal space. Arthur was just next to them. He looked alarmed, but also amused by Merlin’s boldness. And he was also curious by the outcome.  
  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Gwen blushed and tried to look like she wasn’t even there, sitting between Arthur and Merlin.  
  
“No, you know what he’s talking about.” Arthur supported Merlin.  
  
“I… I don’t…” Poor Gwen stammered, but Merlin interrupted her.  
  
“And what would you say about both of us?” He asked her breezily as if it was a question he gave every now and then.  
  
Gwen looked scandalized, but Merlin shifted his gaze to Arthur.  
  
“Are you in?” He asked his friend.  
  
“With you two? Why not? Sure.” To tell the truth, Merlin wasn’t all that certain whether Arthur would agree or send Merlin packing with a scolding for inappropriateness. So he felt immensely relieved when Arthur took it in stride with lightness to his words.  
  
And that was how they ended up having threesome on a makeshift double-bed in their dorm room. That time it was all about cooperation between two guys to make it for the girl worthwhile. It was also an experience that belonged to university life adventures and that they wouldn’t take back.  
  
Nothing changed between them and yet something did. People don’t usually get privy to the most intimate moments of their friends, moments such as how they look or sound when they come. And although their everyday life interaction didn’t alter from its usual form, they had to come to terms with the way they perceived the other while knowing each other this close.  
///  
It was about two weeks after the night with Gwen, when Arthur forgot to lock a door of their tiny bathroom they shared and Merlin caught him wanking in a shower. Merlin had large headphones on his ears, which explained why he didn’t heard the running water. He made it as far as a sink when he realized he probably wasn’t alone, the light being turned on and with moisture in the air. He took of his headphones while turning in the direction of the shower.  
  
“Jeez, sorry.”  
  
Arthur was like a deer caught in headlights of a car. He stood there, his hand wrapped around his cock and he wasn’t able to do or say a single thing.  
  
Merlin turned as soon as he realized the situation. However, instead of leaving Arthur alone with his ministrations, he stopped in the door.  
  
“I thought you were right-handed.” Merlin noted, stealing a glance over his shoulder.  
  
Arthur was speechless. “I like it when it feels like from someone else.” He admitted eventually. It wasn’t the same as when Gwen was there with them.  
  
Merlin still stood in the door. Then he turned to Arthur fully, looking into his eyes.  
  
“Mutual help?” He asked.  
  
And although Arthur was taken aback by the offer, it did not sound so bad. This was Merlin, after all. Suddenly, the tension between them loosed and he didn’t felt so embarrassed anymore.  
  
“Yeah, that would be good.”  
  
Merlin shed down his clothes and stepped in the shower stall, joining Arthur there. His cock, Arthur noticed, was full and heavy as it dangled between his legs when Merlin walked. The small space felt crowded and they stood there, facing each other awkwardly for a moment before Merlin reached out and grasped Arthur’s length, giving it few experimental strokes.  
  
“Like this?” He asked Arthur softly and Arthur remembered he should breathe again. Arthur nodded, trying to not to lose himself in Merlin’s blue-blue eyes. He reminded himself that this is a mutual thing and focused on taking Merlin in his hand and stroking, while Merlin’s touch sent shivers through his entire body.  
  
They lost a sense of time, as they stood there, under a hot spray of water, drawing pleasure from each other with every move of their hands. It was certainly the craziest thing Arthur has ever done. It was something he will never talk about in the future, but that he will remember forever.  
  
As the overwhelming heat flooded every last part of Arthur, Merlin panting heavily against his ear, he pressed his lips against Merlin’s wiry shoulder, biting at the muscles at the base of his neck, in order to stifle the shout that threatened to escape his mouth when he came. Subconsciously, he gripped Merlin harder and with few erratic cants of his hips, Merlin came, too, tilting his head back, as he stabilized himself with a hand against the small of Arthur’s back.  
  
Arthur forced himself to untangle his weak-feeling limbs from Merlin’s body.  
  
“That was… That was welcomed.” He told Merlin little breathlessly. Merlin was still dazed, but he nodded. Then they took turns in washing their bodies under the shower as if it was the most natural thing. By the time they were drying their bodies with towels, they already started to joke, easing back to their easy banter.  
///  
In the following days, they never talked about what happened in the shower and it did not repeat, although Arthur was leaving the bathroom door open on a regular basis. Arthur was almost considering it a one-time kind of thing already, which was fine with him, it really was, because he did not expect for it to repeat. Except he hoped it would happen again. Therefore one night, when they had some drinks with their friends in a pub, but retired early, before they forgot and wasted themselves, Arthur found himself putting his thoughts on the matter into words.  
  
“Merlin, I wanted to ask you if you would-“  
  
“The project.” Merlin cut him short. “Sure. I will help you with it.” He said and continued pulling off his socks as he prepared to bed.  
  
And that just showed how big heart made of gold Merlin had. No matter how much of own workload he had, Merlin always happily offered a hand when Arthur got spread thin between his university studies and duties his father loaded on him. And no matter how many times Arthur called him an idiot, Merlin was the most intelligent person Arthur knew. However, that was not what he wanted to ask. He let the question of whether Merlin would like to repeat the ‘mutual help’ thing again die on his lips and hummed non-committally instead.  
  
Later that night Arthur was woke up by tiny gasps and moans and he thought Merlin had to be in a fit of one of his nightmares that occasionally plagued him at nights.  
  
“Merlin.” He called his roommate to rouse him from his bad dreams.  
  
Suddenly, there was a grave silence, interrupted only by remote sounds of too many people living at a place with too thin walls. And Arthur realized it couldn’t have been a nightmare, for if it was, Merlin would be sitting and panting now, trying to shake off the fearful images that clang to him even after waking. Arthur’s senses sharpened as his mind focused on finding an answer. He didn’t like what his sleep-muddled brain came up with.  
  
“Are you wanking?” He asked with disbelief evident in his voice.  
  
“I’m… No-no.” Merlin stuttered and that just deepened Arthur’s suspicion.  
  
“Merlin?” He asked the way he did when he wanted Merlin to plead guilty.  
  
“Fine.” Merlin said acidly. “I just… I just had this dream and when I woke up I… couldn’t help myself.”  
  
Arthur rolled his eyes. Trust Merlin with being upset, when Arthur was supposed to be the upset one. He imagined how Merlin had to look, flushed cheeks and pouty lips. …All sweaty and achingly hard… Arthur definitely shouldn’t have let his imagination to go there. Instead of being disgusted with Merlin’s behaviour, now he was aroused, too.  
  
Maybe it was time for action instead of talking and Arthur pull off his duvet, got up from his bed and stalked to Merlin’s.  
  
“What are you doing?” Merlin eyed him mistrustfully.  
  
“How do you suppose I should fall asleep now, you dork?” Arthur asked even as he tugged on Merlin’s blanket and crawled into his bed next to him. Merlin eyes pierced him with intensity he never saw in them before and he mumbled weakly. “Mutual help, remember?”  
  
Merlin probably haven’t seen the blush that spread on Arthur’s cheeks and neck, with the lights being off, for which Arthur was grateful. He could feel the warmth of Merlin’s naked body just inches from his and it was all overwhelming once again before it even started.  
  
“All right.” Merlin whispered and it sent goose bumps down Arthur’s spine.  
  
This time Merlin pressed his body close to Arthur’s, warming it quickly as his hand sneaked down to Arthur’s crotch. Arthur returned the favour, his heart beating fast with anticipation. He was too immersed in the contact and the constant push and pull that he was startled when Merlin’s teeth grazed his earlobe. Arthur’s breath hitched and for a second he forgot to move his hand, only enjoying the ecstatic shivers it send through his body.  
  
It didn’t took long and their heavy breaths were mingling in the shared space between their bodies, their heads sharing one pillow. Arthur opened his heavy eyelids to see Merlin’s face, contorting in minute flares of pleasure. Merlin’s eyes were closed, unaware of observation. His full lips were parted, moving slightly with the taken breaths and Arthur thought how much he wanted to taste them. It would make it all much more… complete. It would make it all much gayer, too, but – as Arthur realized – they were far beyond that point now. He dragged his thumb over a sensitive spot of Merlin’s cock, eliciting a soft whimper and then he shifted, his lips cautiously caressing Merlin’s. Merlin’s eyes shot open and Arthur stopped, but Merlin did not back away. With renewed passion Merlin started to kiss him in earnest, bringing Arthur with his skilled hand to brink in almost no time.  
///  
In the morning, Arthur woke up and realized he was still with Merlin in Merlin’s bed. He was too well fucked to have energy or will or coherency to return to his own bed. Next to him, Merlin stirred awake, too.  
  
“Arthur.” He croaked.  
  
“Good morning.” Arthur raised an eyebrow while accosting position of their bodies with a thoughtful look. Then he looked back at his dishevelled roommate. “I want to do this again.” Arthur told him earnestly, preventing another days of misunderstanding.  
  
Merlin eyes widened. “I… will think about it.”  
  
That was not what Arthur expected, but he could wait for Merlin’s answer.  
  
And Merlin took it seriously. They didn’t see each other till evening. It was a longest day in a past year for Arthur. He was used to Merlin’s distracting comments and jokes and without them the day seemed bleak and boring. Therefore there was more than one reason for Arthur to feel glad when the evening finally came and Merlin returned to their room.  
  
“Merlin?” Arthur welcomed him with a smile.  
  
“I thought about it.” He said seriously.  
  
“And?” Arthur probed.  
  
“And don’t interrupt me.” Merlin glared at him briefly. “Arthur, I can’t do this.”  
  
Arthur’s face fell in an instant. “But why?” And there was a badly covered hurt audible in his question.  
  
Merlin casted his look sideways. And a tinge of pink appeared on his finely chiselled cheekbones. “Because you are too addictive.”  
  
Arthur didn’t know what to say to that, but Merlin continued anyway.  
  
“I thought about what would happen when you get bored of me, the things we do.”  
  
“Merlin, I’ll never get tired of you.” Arthur objected. Merlin didn’t give himself enough credit, he was addictive, too.  
  
“Really? And what will happen after we graduate?” Merlin asked sarcastically. “We’ll get together every now and then to shag? Even if you’ll live in another city and will a have a pretty wife for that? Sorry, but I don’t think so.” Merlin didn’t dare to meet Arthur’s eyes after his outburst.  
  
Arthur wanted to say that of course, they would see each other even after they graduate, but only now it dawned on him how transitory the thing they had between them was.  
  
“And I would gladly say that I want as much of you as you’d give me, if you were anybody but you.” Merlin said at last. “The thing is, you are way too much important to me to spoil our friendship with things I don’t know how to deal with.”  
  
Arthur understood, but it hurt nonetheless.  
///  
The next day Arthur was suddenly gone. It took a week for him to return. During that week Merlin was as nerve-wrecked as one could be considering he just turned down his best friend. When Arthur finally reappeared, it was an early evening, which Merlin was spending by working on his study assignments in their dorm room. When Arthur walked in, it was so familiar sight and yet, this time there was a chasm of week-long silence gaping between them.  
  
“About damn time for you to show up.” Merlin gave Arthur an earful. “If you think I’ll do all the work from lessons you missed during last week, than I will let you know that others have their own work to do, too.”  
  
Arthur huffed in exasperation. “Oh, that’s like you Merlin, to scold a friend instead of greeting him.”  
  
“Well, what can I say? My friend shouldn’t be such a prat.” And then Merlin’s scowl broke into a chuckle. Arthur smiled as well.  
  
“You idiot.” And that was it. Truce offered, truce accepted.  
  
“But I’d like to show you something. Can you come with me?” Arthur said when he stopped grinning like a loon.  
  
“Where to?”  
  
“You’ll see.”  
  
Arthur led them out of the dorm. They stopped by Arthur’s car, where Arthur picked up a strangely huge rucksack, but he said nothing and Merlin became reconciled to not getting any information before they got where they were headed to. At least Arthur haven’t bullied him into carrying the baggage, which would be just so typical Arthur.  
  
Soon, they left the university complex and Merlin followed Arthur at a well-trodden path to the hills behind the complex. Merlin knew there was a place where students occasionally did parties around campfire – they were there with Arthur half a year ago. However, that was not where Arthur led them. They left the path soon and clambered up a steep grassy slope. They were out of sight of the path and dorm buildings soon. They walked only few more yards and Arthur stopped.  
  
“Here.” He said.  
  
Merlin turned around, searching for something he was supposed to see and that eluded his senses so far, but he didn’t find anything else than a grassy hilltop, some shrubbery and a good view of the city below. He turned to Arthur to ask why they were there, but Arthur already got to work – spreading a blanket and setting few small lanterns around. Then he produced few containers of food – cheese and fruits – and a bottle of wine.  
  
“Are we having a picnic?” Merlin was confused. The sun was about to set and Merlin had a ton of work to do.  
  
“Hush and sit down already.” Arthur didn’t deem necessary to reply to Merlin’s question. Merlin only sighed and sat on the blanket next to Arthur.  
  
Arthur produced two wine glasses and corkscrew, entrusting Merlin with the latter. While Merlin was trying to open the bottle of red wine, Arthur lit the lanterns. Then he hurried to take the bottle from Merlin’s clumsy hands before he managed to spill all the wine and poured Merlin an inch of dark red liquid.  
  
“Try it.” He bid Merlin to taste the wine. Merlin sniffed it and took a gulp.  
  
“God, that’s good.” He praised and Arthur filled his glass with more of the wine before pouring some to his own glass. He turned his head to look to the west and Merlin followed his motion. The horizon turned crimson red with golden stripes of clouds above. The sun turned many shades of orange as it leant towards the earth.  
  
They just sat there in companionable silence for a while until Arthur broke it.  
  
“I know this is nothing special.” Their looks remained directed to the sunset as Arthur spoke. “I wanted to take you to a fancy restaurant, but I remember you don’t like them. With your propensity to drop things and a lack of manners, I am not even wondering why... Ow!” He exclaimed as Merlin poked him into ribs. They looked at each other. “This past week I realized few things. Like that you changed me in so many ways that I only beginning to understand it.” Arthur lowered his eyes for a moment before he continued. “I wanted you to know that I appreciate you for more than a mind-blowing sex. I don’t want to move to another city, get a wife and loose contact with you after we graduate. And I don’t want to see you just every now and then.” Now Merlin curiosity was picked even more and he hang on every word Arthur said. Arthur cleared his voice. “I want to spend every day with you like I do now; possibly for the rest of my life. And while we could stay the way we are – friends – I’d prefer to move it further. Will you give me a chance?”  
  
Merlin gaped at him as if Arthur lost his mind.  
  
“Merlin?” Arthur asked bravely, when Merlin didn’t answer.  
  
“Oh – yes. I’m sorry.” Merlin hurried with his reply this time. He felt a bit breathless.  
  
A wide smile spread across Arthur’s face and he bent forward to capture Merlin’s lips in a kiss. It was almost dark now, the blue of the sky turning indigo and then to a pitch black illuminated by lights of the city below.  
  
“I love you, Arthur.” Merlin whispered into Arthur’s ear as he settled closer to him, their shoulders touching. A dopey smile turned corners of his lips up, when he realized what had just transpired between the two of them.  
  
“I love you, too. Be quiet now, the fireworks will start soon.” And true to Arthur’s words, the fireworks started to whistle into the air, lighting up the dark sky with multitude of colourful sparks. They were the most beautiful fireworks Merlin had ever seen.


End file.
